The present invention relates to the field of electronic commerce. More specifically, the invention relates to techniques for facilitating the transfer of electronic funds.
In the field of electronic commerce it is common for online merchants to sell products advertised on web sites. Such merchants generally require payment from a buyer in the form of a bank credit card charge. Thus, to complete an online transaction the buyer normally needs to enter information (i.e., a card-holder name, a credit card number, and an expiration date) associated with a bank credit card. This approach requires the online merchant to have the capacity to process credit card payments.
It is now common for relatively unsophisticated sellers to market products online. Many such sellers lack the ability to receive credit card orders. Instead, they depend primarily upon the traditional payment means of personal checks and money orders.
One approach for unsophisticated sellers that is becoming increasingly popular is to advertise and sell their wares on a sophisticated commercial web site that provides a forum for third party sellers. For example, Amazon.com, Inc., the assignee of the present application, hosts two such forums: xe2x80x9cAmazon.com Auctions,xe2x80x9d in which third party sellers auction off products to buyers, and xe2x80x9czShops,xe2x80x9d in which third party sellers advertise fixed-price products to buyers. Such third party transactions generally proceed as follows. A seller posts to the host web site information regarding a product it wishes to sell. A buyer with an interest in the product submits a purchase offer to the host web site. If there is mutual interest in the transaction, the host web site informs each party of the deal. The buyer and seller then arrange on their own how the buyer will pay the purchase price and how the seller will provide the product.
Since the parties must deal with one another in arranging payment and delivery, there immediately arises the problem of trust. Whereas the host web site may be a large well known entity with a reputation to protect, the individual buyers and sellers in these third party transactions are generally unknown to the other party. The buyer will not feel confident about the transaction until he or she receives the product and can inspect it for comparison with expectations. The seller will not feel confident about the transaction until he or she receives the proper payment and, if necessary, converts it into a cash-equivalent form. Typically this means the seller must wait for several days, at least, until a money order, cashier""s check, or cleared personal check is in hand.
Furthermore, the seller has no way of knowing whether the buyer is ever going to pay. The buyer may have a change of heart, never to be heard from again. During the week or ten days (or more) that it takes the seller to realize that the buyer has backed out, the seller may miss opportunities to sell the product to other buyers.
Also, payment via a personal check through the mail generally requires a seller to identify his or her name to the buyer. This may be unacceptable to sellers who prefer to remain anonymous to the buying public. Payment to a seller via a credit card requires a buyer to identify his credit card information to the seller. This may be unacceptable to buyers who prefer to limit the exposure of their credit card numbers to trusted commercial entities.
The present invention seeks to overcome these and other problems.
The present invention provides various methods for extracting a user""s bank account information for use in facilitating the electronic transfer of funds to or from the user""s bank account. The methods may be used, for example, as an alternative to requiring users to send a voided check to the entity initiating the transfer. The methods may be embodied within a web site, an online services network, a telephone-based voice prompting system, or another type of interactive system that can be accessed by remote users. The invention also provides various associated methods for facilitating transfers of funds between a buyer and a seller in an online system for users to sell items to other users.
One feature of the invention involves a method and system for extracting a bank routing number from character strings entered by a user from the face of a bank check. In a preferred embodiment, the method involves receiving from the user the character string of a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line. The user may optionally be prompted to provide the MICR line with the assistance of a generalized image of a check indicating the location of the MICR line on the face of the check. A checksum test is then applied to a contiguous string of characters within the MICR line. A contiguous string that satisfies the checksum test is identified and stored as the bank routing number for the user.
The user may also be prompted to enter a check number and an account number from the check, which may likewise be obtained with the assistance of a generalized image of a check indicating the locations of such numbers. In this case, a test is preferably performed to verify that the check number, the account number, and the bank routing number all coexist within the MICR line. If coexistence is verified, the account number and bank routing number are stored for later use in facilitating payments to the user. The user may also optionally be prompted to specify the name of his or her bank, and the specified bank name may be used to verify or to disambiguate the results of the routing number extraction process.
Another feature of the invention involves a method and system for facilitating the transfer of funds between a buyer and a seller in an online auction system, an online flea market system, or another type of system in which user can sell items to other users. In a preferred embodiment, the seller is prompted to enter information from the face of a bank check issued from the seller""s bank account. This information is used to determine a bank routing number and account number for the seller. A credit card account associated with the buyer is then charged to collect funds for purchasing one or more items from the seller, and at least a portion of the collected funds is deposited electronically into the seller""s bank account using the bank routing number and account number. In one embodiment, an indication is displayed in association with the seller""s product offering(s) informing buyers that the seller is enabled to accept payment electronically. Preferably, buyers are given the option to immediately purchase items from such sellers using a default credit card number and shipping address previously specified by the buyer.
For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that provides some of the disclosed advantages but not others.